1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to video encoding, and more particularly to intra mode decisions within advanced video encoding (such as H.264/AVC or MPEG-4 Part 10) standards.
2. Description of Related Art
H.264/AVC, alternatively known as MPEG-4 Part 10 and by several other monikers, is representative of improved data compression algorithms. Improved data compression, however, comes at the price of greatly increased computational requirements during the encoding processing phase.
In particular, the H.264/AVC contains a very computationally expensive section where an optimal intra mode is calculated that yields the lowest sum of absolute transformed differences (or SATD) between an input 4×4 pixel block, and its compressed version. Examples of prior attempts to reduce this computational cost include A. C. Yu, G. R. Martin, and H. Park, in “A Frequency Domain Approach to Intra Mode Selection in H.264/AVC”, incorporated by reference in its entirety, U.S. patent publication US 2006/0209948 A1, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, and U.S. patent publication US 2006/0251330 A1, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.